Enneagram at Work

Type 8s can have a reputation for being intense, confrontational, or even angry, but that isn’t usually what’s happening.

Often, what others experience as intensity may simply be directness, urgency, passion, confidence, or a willingness to say the thing everyone else is avoiding.

In this episode, we look at what Type 8 energy can bring to the workplace, including:

• Courage and decisiveness
• A willingness to take charge when leadership is needed
• Fierce protection of people they trust
• Comfort addressing difficult issues directly
• Why challenging questions aren’t necessarily personal
• How tone, pace, certainty, and intensity can sometimes overshadow the actual message
• Why indirect communication and “beating around the bush” can be especially frustrating for Type 8s
• The difference between intention and impact
• How coworkers can communicate more effectively with an Eight by being clear, concise, and honest

For Type 8s, no one is telling them to try and be less powerful.

Instead, it's more about being intentional with the power they already have.

A helpful question to consider:

Does this situation actually require all of my intensity?

Sometimes the answer will absolutely be yes.

Other times, the same message may be more effective at a lower volume.

The goal isn’t to become less direct, less confident, or less powerful; it’s to reflect on and recognize when your clarity is enough.

Bring this conversation to your team

These are the kinds of conversations we explore inside Enneagram MBA workshops, where teams learn more about the nine Enneagram types, their own patterns, and how coworkers may experience one another differently.

Our workshops are designed to be practical, positive, and interactive — helping people better understand themselves and the people they work with without labeling or putting anyone in a box.

And if you’re planning an Enneagram workshop internally, check out the free Enneagram Workshop Planning Kit for sample agendas, room setup ideas, pre- and post-workshop resources, planning checklists, and tools to help make the case internally.

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

Featuring Special Guest: Andy Bales | Enneagram Type 6

What does it actually look like when people use the Enneagram at work, not just during a workshop, but in everyday decisions, conversations, and leadership challenges?

In this episode of Enneagram at Work, I'm joined by Andy Bales, a retired engineer, manager, and global supply chain leader who spent 35 years working for a Fortune 500 company. Along the way, Andy became an internal champion for the Enneagram, introducing it to coworkers, leaders, and teams across the organization.

Andy shares several real-world stories of how understanding personality and motivation helped people navigate difficult relationships, influence leadership, build stronger partnerships, and recognize their own patterns before those patterns led to burnout.

In this episode, you'll hear:

• How a mechanical engineer became an internal Enneagram champion at a Fortune 500 company.
• Why understanding someone's motivation can be more useful than simply observing their behavior.
• What it means to "speak to someone's listening" and how Andy adjusted his communication with Type 8 and Type 3 leaders.
• How understanding a command-and-control leader helped Andy build trust and become more influential.
• How a Type 3 executive used his Enneagram insights to develop his leadership approach and help build a strong organizational culture.
• How a Type 1 project manager turned a frustrating working relationship into a successful partnership.
• How a newly promoted Type 2 manager recognized her overgiving tendencies, established boundaries, and began asking for help.
• Why Andy encourages leaders to practice the Platinum Rule: Treat others the way they want to be treated.
• Why an Enneagram assessment is a starting point - not necessarily the final answer- when identifying your type.

A few key takeaways...

Understanding motivation changes the conversation. Two employees may behave similarly for entirely different reasons. The Enneagram helps us explore what might be driving those behaviors.

You don't have to change someone's personality to improve a working relationship. Sometimes the better approach is to understand their perspective and adjust how you communicate and collaborate.

Self-awareness should lead to action. Whether that means delegating more, setting boundaries, building trust, or approaching a challenging colleague differently, the value comes from what you do with the insight.

About Andy Bales

Andy Bales spent 35 years working in engineering, management, and global supply chain leadership at a Fortune 500 company. An Enneagram Type 6 with a Preserving Instinctual Bias, Andy has studied and applied the Enneagram since 2000, introducing the framework to colleagues and helping individuals better understand their types.

His experience includes facilitating Enneagram training, mentoring employees, and helping leaders apply personality insights to real workplace situations.

Connect with Andy: [email protected]

About Enneagram MBA

Enneagram MBA helps teams and leaders build stronger working relationships through practical, engaging Enneagram-based training.

Explore our workplace workshops, leadership development experiences, and team resources at enneagrammba.com.

To get a typing session with Andy, learn more here: https://www.enneagrammba.com/enneagram-coaching

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

Why do some coworkers question everything? And why can their questions sometimes feel like criticism, resistance, or a lack of trust?

Inspired by a recent conversation between Adam Grant and Brené Brown about the Enneagram, we're exploring skepticism through a different lens.

What if three people questioned the exact same idea, but for three completely different reasons?

In this episode of Enneagram at Work, we're looking at how Enneagram Types 1, 5, and 6 might approach skepticism, what's potentially motivating their questions, and how understanding those differences can help us communicate and collaborate more effectively.

We'll use a common workplace scenario (introducing a new process) to explore how questioning can be driven by a desire for improvement, a need for information, or a concern for trust and security.

And while any Enneagram type can be skeptical, these three examples give us a useful starting point for getting curious about what's underneath someone's pushback.

In this episode, we explore:

• Type 1: Questioning to improve: Why a coworker's attention to errors, inconsistencies, or standards can sound like criticism when their intention may be to make something better.
• Type 5: Questioning to understand: Why asking for more information, evidence, or processing time doesn't necessarily mean someone disagrees.
• Type 6: Questioning to establish trust: How anticipating risks, questioning assumptions, and wanting contingency plans can strengthen a team's decisions.
• Why we often mistake skepticism for negativity, resistance, or someone questioning our authority.
• What each of these coworkers might need before feeling ready to move forward.
• Three simple questions that can help you respond to skepticism with curiosity instead of defensiveness.

Three questions to try with your team:

1. What about this doesn't feel right yet?
2. What additional information would be helpful?
3. What concerns do you have that we haven't addressed?

You don't have to know someone's Enneagram type to start asking better questions.

The takeaway: Skepticism isn't always resistance. Sometimes it's someone noticing something important that the rest of the team has overlooked.

The next time someone challenges an idea, try asking one question to better understand their concern before jumping in to defend your position.

Mentioned in this episode

• Previous episode: Adam Grant Doesn't Believe in the Enneagram. Does He Have a Point? A closer look at Adam Grant's skepticism, the research behind the Enneagram, and its application in the workplace.
• Adam Grant and Brené Brown on The Curiosity Shop
• Explore Enneagram team workshops and retreats
• Get help planning your own Enneagram workshop
• Share your thoughts or workplace experiences

Bring the conversation to your team

At Enneagram MBA, we help teams turn personality insights into practical conversations about communication, collaboration, and workplace relationships through facilitated workshops, leadership retreats, and team development programs.

Learn more at Enneagram MBA.

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

Adam Grant, organizational psychologist, bestselling author, and longtime skeptic of the Enneagram, has agreed to take an Enneagram assessment.

During a recent episode of The Curiosity Shop with Brené Brown, the two discussed revisiting the Enneagram on Adam's ReThinking podcast. And as someone who uses the Enneagram professionally, I couldn't resist digging into the conversation.

Does Adam Grant have a point about the Enneagram? I think he does. But I also think there's more to the conversation.

In this episode, we're looking at what the research actually says about the Enneagram, where some of the criticism is warranted, and why the way we teach and apply the framework matters.

I'll also share a personal experience that changed how I teach the Enneagram, why I've moved away from certain traditional theories, and how I think we can approach personality frameworks with more curiosity and less certainty.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why Adam Grant is skeptical of the Enneagram and other personality assessments.
• What a systematic review of 104 research samples found about the Enneagram's reliability and validity.
• How Dr. Daniel Siegel's more recent work explores nine personality patterns through interpersonal neurobiology.
• Why I question traditional Enneagram teachings like Centers of Intelligence, wings, and childhood origin stories.
• The experience that made me realize I was spending more time defending the model than understanding the person.
• What we're actually trying to accomplish when we bring the Enneagram into workplace relationships.
• Why scientific scrutiny and practical experience both deserve a place in the conversation.

One of my biggest takeaways: The model should serve the person. The person shouldn't have to serve the model.

Whether you're an Enneagram enthusiast, a skeptic, or someone considering bringing personality development into your workplace, I hope this episode encourages you to stay curious, question what you've been taught, and remain open to learning something new.

And stay tuned for the next episode, where I'll revisit Adam Grant and explore why Enneagram Types 1, 5, and 6 might question the exact same thing for three very different reasons.

The original conversation

• Adam Grant and Brené Brown on The Curiosity Shop

Research and books

• The Enneagram: A Systematic Review of the Literature and Directions for Future Research - Hook et al., Journal of Clinical Psychology (2021)
• Personality and Wholeness in Therapy: Integrating 9 Patterns of Developmental Pathways in Clinical Practice - Daniel J. Siegel and the PDP Group (2024)
• Awareness to Action - The Enneagram approach used at Enneagram MBA

Bring the Enneagram to your workplace

Explore facilitated team workshops, leadership retreats, and development programs at Enneagram MBA.

Or explore our free Workshop Planning Kit, with sample agendas, room setup ideas, discussion questions, and resources to help you plan your own team experience.

Have a different perspective?

I'd love to hear it. Whether you agree with Adam's skepticism, have research to share, or have experienced the Enneagram differently, join the conversation at enneagrammba.com/contact.

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

If you'd like to take what you hear today further, Enneagram MBA offers standalone workshops, retreat experiences, and team-development programs that can be customized around communication, collaboration, and working styles.

If you’d rather lead the experience internally, the DIY Enneagram Workshop Kit includes a slide deck, facilitator guide, sample agendas, icebreakers, and tools to help you bring the conversation to your own team.

*****

Better communication doesn’t always mean more communication.

Teams already have more ways to stay connected than ever: email, messaging platforms, video calls, project-management tools, AI-generated summaries.

But... none of those automatically mean people understand one another better. Sometimes the most useful shift is becoming more aware of the person on the other side of the conversation.

In this episode, we look at five common reasons communication can break down even on good teams:

• Different priorities shape what people hear and pay attention to
• Communication style can easily be confused with intention
• Teams often have unspoken expectations they assume everyone shares
• People respond to stress, tension, and disagreement differently
• We make assumptions about what is driving someone else’s behavior before we actually know

Using examples from real workshop feedback, we explore how the Enneagram can help teams move from assumption to curiosity and better understand what may be underneath a coworker’s communication style, questions, pace, or reactions.

You’ll also hear three questions you can bring into your next team meeting:

1. What helps you receive information clearly?
2. What is one communication habit you have that others might misunderstand?
3. What is one thing we could do differently to make communication easier across our team?

The goal isn’t to get everyone communicating the same way. It’s to build enough awareness and shared language that people can better understand one another and work through differences with less friction.

****

NEW RESOURCE: Download the free Enneagram Workshop Planning Kit for ideas, sample agendas, planning questions, and practical resources to help you design the right experience for your team.

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

Planning an end-of-year or beginning-of-year team experience?

If your team is looking for a meaningful way to reflect, reconnect, or start the new year with a stronger shared language, learn more about Enneagram MBA team workshops and kickoff experiences.

You can also download the free Enneagram Workshop Planning Kit for ideas, sample agendas, planning questions, and practical resources to help you design the right experience for your team.

*****

Not everyone processes ideas by talking them through.

For Enneagram Type 5s, thinking often happens internally first - observing, gathering information, making connections, and deciding what is worth contributing. 

In a workplace that often rewards fast responses and visible participation, that can sometimes be mistaken for aloofness or disengagement.

In this episode, we explore the strengths Type 5s bring to teams and what managers can do to make better use of those strengths.

We cover:

• Why Type 5s often want time to understand before they respond
• How silence can be mistaken for disengagement
• Why many meetings naturally favor external processors
• Simple ways managers can get better input from quieter team members
• The Type 5 tendency to protect time, energy, and attention
• When gathering more information becomes a reason to delay participation
• How Type 5s can contribute before every thought feels completely finished

The bigger takeaway: participation doesn’t always look like immediate verbal participation.

The person who hasn’t said much yet may still be doing some of the most important thinking in the room.

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

Planning an Enneagram workshop for your team?

Before you decide on the agenda, activities, or even how much Enneagram content to include, there are a few bigger questions worth answering first.

In this episode of the Enneagram at Work Podcast, you'll learn five questions that can help you plan a workshop that is not only interesting in the room, but useful once everyone gets back to work.

Whether you’re bringing in a facilitator, planning an internal team experience, or facilitating Enneagram workshops yourself, these questions can help you think more intentionally about what you want the experience to accomplish.

In this episode:

• What do you want people to understand differently after the workshop?
• What do you want people to do differently afterward?
• Who is actually going to be in the room - a leadership team, intact team, cross-functional group, new team, or multiple departments?
• How much Enneagram content do people really need?
• What will happen after the workshop so the Enneagram becomes more than a one-time experience?

You'll also hear about one of the biggest mistakes she made early on as a facilitator: trying to teach too much Enneagram content instead of creating enough space for reflection, discussion, and application.

The goal isn’t to turn everyone into Enneagram experts.

It’s to help people become better experts on themselves, and on the relationships they navigate at work.

Free Workshop Planning Kits

If you’re currently planning an Enneagram workshop, retreat, team development session, or kickoff meeting, Enneagram MBA has two free Workshop Planning Kits designed to help.

Path One: For HR, L&D, people leaders, and internal Enneagram champions:
Get sample agendas, planning questions, room setup ideas, guidance for getting leadership buy-in, and more.

Path Two: For Enneagram coaches and facilitators:
Get sample agendas, workshop preparation questions, pricing considerations, facilitation guidance, and ideas for what happens before, during, and after the workshop.

Explore both free resources at:

EnneagramMBA.com/resources

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

What does leadership look like when you don’t fit the stereotypical image of the bold, outspoken, highly assertive leader?

In this episode, we get to hear from Suha Patel, an Enneagram Type 2, and Gallia Levy, an Enneagram Type 4, about the leadership strengths that can be easy to overlook - from relationship building and coaching to authenticity, intuition, depth, and the courage to say what others may be feeling but aren’t willing to say.  

Suha and Gallia also share what they’ve learned from working together, including how their different strengths created trust, helped each of them grow, and allowed them to lead without trying to become someone they weren’t. 

When you tune in, you'll hear more about: 

• The underrated leadership strengths of Enneagram Types 2 and 4
• Why leadership doesn’t always have to look loud, fast, or highly assertive
• How Type 2s can use relationships, intuition, and individualized coaching as a source of influence
• The Type 4 ability to bring honesty, emotional depth, and courage into a team
• How their Type 2–Type 4 working relationship helped both of them grow
• Boundaries, feedback, intensity, authenticity, and other growth areas for both types
• Why you don’t have to abandon your natural leadership style in order to advance

One of my favorite ideas from the conversation is Gallia’s closing advice to fellow Type 4s: don’t abandon your depth in order to belong as a leader. And for Type 2s, Suha offers an equally important reminder: you matter too.  

Please don't be shy and connect with Suha and Gallia below to let them know what you're taking away from this one!

Meet Suha: Type 2 

Suha Patel is a global business leader, mentor, and lifelong student of human behavior whose journey has spanned four continents, executive leadership, and deep personal transformation.

As an executive in biotech, she spent decades leading in high-performance environments while quietly carrying the belief that staying small and silent was the safest way to move through the world. Her path into self-awareness, enneagrams, nervous system healing, and inner child work radically changed the way she understands leadership, relationships, identity, and emotional well-being.

Today, Suha is passionate about exploring the invisible patterns that shape our lives – the survival strategies we mistake for personality, and the ways unresolved emotional experiences quietly influence how we love, lead, speak and connect. Through honest storytelling and deep reflections, she brings a grounded and compassionate perspective to conversations about healing, self-awareness, emotional regulation, and what it truly means to feel safe enough to become ourselves fully.

Connect with Suha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suhapatel/

Meet Gallia: Type 4

Dr. Gallia Levy is currently the Global Head of Development at Kite Pharma, a Gilead Company. In this capacity she oversees the Development of the Kite portfolio of cell therapies from early phase trials to approved products, across therapeutic areas such as oncology and autoimmune disease. 

Prior to Kite, Gallia was the Chief Medical and Product Strategy Officer at Spark Therapeutics, where she led strategic and operational teams throughout the product development lifecycle with responsibility for setting the global development and product strategy.

Before joining Spark, Gallia was Vice President and Global Head of the Rare Blood Disorders Franchise in Product Development at Genentech and Roche, where she was responsible for the clinical development of treatments for hemophilia A and other rare blood disorders such as paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS). Gallia first joined Genentech in 2009, where she worked in both early- and late-stage clinical development. She later moved to Portola Pharmaceuticals, where she led the clinical development program for hematology and oncology indications spanning Phases 1 to registrational trials. She eventually returned to Genentech, taking responsibility for the global clinical development program for HEMLIBRA®, during which time she led the transition from Phase 1 through to global registration for adults and children with hemophilia A.

Gallia is board-certified in hematology and earned an M.D. and Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Michigan, during which time she discovered ADAMTS13, responsible for Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP). She completed her residency in internal medicine at Stanford University and a fellowship in hematology at the University of California, San Francisco. She also spent time at the Pasteur Institute, during which she received an M.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Paris VI, and she holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Connect with Gallia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gallia-levy-b4700775/

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

Type 1s bring something incredibly valuable to the workplace: high standards, reliability, precision, follow-through, and a natural ability to see what could be improved.

But those same strengths can become heavy.

A Type 1 may notice the typo, the missed deadline, the unclear process, the skipped step, or the work that is almost right - and then quietly become the person who fixes it, checks it, follows up on it, or takes it back over.

Over time, responsibility can turn into over-responsibility.  

In this episode of the Enneagram at Work Podcast, we'll explore together what can happen when a Type 1’s desire to do things well starts creating extra work for themselves, and sometimes extra pressure for the people around them.

The question at the center of the episode is:

Does this actually need to be improved, or is it simply not how I would have done it?  

You'll also hear about in this episode:

• Why Type 1s are often the people who notice what everyone else misses
• How responsibility can quietly become over-responsibility
• The invisible workload Type 1s may take on without being asked
• Why “I’ll just fix this real quick” can add up to a much bigger workload
• How resentment can build when a Type 1 feels like they are the only person who cares
• Why different approaches do not necessarily mean someone is less committed
• Why delegation can be especially difficult when “done” isn’t the same as “done the way I would do it”
• How high standards can unintentionally make teammates feel constantly corrected
• Practical questions Type 1s can use before stepping in, redoing, correcting, or taking something back

You'll also hear about three useful categories for evaluating someone else’s work:

1. It is actually incorrect.
There is a factual, legal, safety, requirement, or outcome-related issue.

2. It genuinely needs improvement.
Something is unclear, inconsistent, likely to create a problem, or does not meet the agreed-upon standard.

3. It is simply different.
The approach, style, order, process, or execution isn’t how you would have done it, but it isn’t actually wrong. 

That third category can be one of the biggest growth opportunities for Type 1.

Because different people can be committed to the same outcome while valuing different parts of the process.

Different does not automatically mean less committed.

Questions for Type 1s to consider

Before correcting, redoing, or taking something over, ask:

• Does this really matter to the outcome?
• Is this actually my responsibility?
• Was this standard clearly communicated?
• Is the outcome wrong — or just different?
• Am I fixing this because it needs fixing, or because fixing it lowers my own discomfort?
• What happens if I let this be good enough? 

The goal isn’t to stop caring or lower your standards.

It may simply be learning that not every detail deserves the same amount of energy, not every task belongs to you, and not every different approach needs to be corrected.  

*****

Want to go deeper into your Enneagram type?

Enneagram MBA now offers individual typing, coaching, and workstyle sessions designed to help you better understand your patterns and actually apply what you’re learning to your work, leadership, and workplace relationships.

Our 1:1 Session Options:

1. Typing Interview 
2. Understand Your Type + Instinct
3. 3-Session Deep Dive
4. Coworker Translation Session
5. Leadership Strategy Session

Learn more at:

EnneagramMBA.com/enneagram-coaching

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!

AI can help us write faster, prepare for meetings, summarize information, and organize ideas.

But can it also help us become better managers and teammates?

In this episode of Enneagram at Work, we're looking at how AI and the Enneagram can work together as a thinking tool - not to predict, diagnose, or stereotype people, but to help us become more intentional about the way we communicate, lead, give feedback, navigate conflict, and prepare for important conversations.

The goal isn't to ask AI, “How do I manage this person?”

A better question might be:

“How can I manage myself more intentionally before I walk into this situation?”

Because AI doesn't know the person sitting across from you. And their Enneagram type can't tell you exactly how they'll respond.

What these tools can do is help you slow down, examine your own patterns, consider another person's perspective, and explore a few different ways forward.

In this episode:

• How to use AI as a thinking partner before feedback conversations
• Why adding your own Enneagram tendencies can make an AI prompt significantly more useful
• Using AI to explore conflict without deciding who's “right”
• Questions AI can help you ask about your own reactions before a difficult conversation
• What not to ask AI about someone's Enneagram type
• Why both AI and the Enneagram should help us become more curious about people, not more certain about them

The AI + Enneagram Prompt Template

Before asking AI to help you prepare for a conversation, meeting, or conflict, give it four pieces of information:

1. CONTEXT: What is happening?
Briefly explain the situation you are preparing for.

2. PATTERN: What do I know about myself?
What tendencies do you recognize in yourself, through the Enneagram or simply through experience?

Where might you overdo a strength?
What tends to happen when you're frustrated, stressed, rushed, or under pressure?

3. PERSON: What do I actually know about the other person?
Focus on what they have told you or what you have directly observed.

How do they prefer to communicate?
Do they like time to process?
Do they prefer detail, brevity, conversation, written information, or clear next steps?

Avoid assuming what they need simply because of an Enneagram type.

4. OUTCOME: What do I want this interaction to accomplish?
What would a productive outcome look like?

Then ask AI to help you prepare.

Copy + Paste Prompt

Context:
I need to [describe the conversation, meeting, feedback, conflict, or decision].

My patterns:
I tend to [describe your natural tendencies, including anything you know from your Enneagram type]. When I am stressed or frustrated, I can sometimes [describe the pattern you want to watch].

The other person:
What I know about this person is [share only what they've communicated or what you've directly observed about how they work, communicate, process information, or receive feedback].

Desired outcome:
I want this conversation to [describe what you want to accomplish].

Help me prepare for this conversation. Identify any blind spots I should consider, language that may land differently than I intend, questions I could ask rather than making assumptions, and a few ways I could approach the conversation while still sounding like myself.

Example

Compare that with simply asking:

“Help me prepare for a conversation about a missed deadline.”

The additional context gives AI much more useful information to work with, while still leaving the judgment, discernment, and actual leadership to you.

One Important Reminder

Use the Enneagram and AI to generate questions, possibilities, and perspectives, not conclusions about another person.

Avoid prompts like:

• “Based on these behaviors, what Enneagram type is my employee?”
• “How do I get a Type Six to agree with me?”
• “My teammate is a Type Nine, so how should I handle conflict with them?”

Instead, try:

“Here are some tendencies this person has told me about themselves. What questions could I ask to better understand what they need instead of assuming?”

That's the bigger opportunity.

The Enneagram gives us language for patterns.
AI can help us examine those patterns and consider alternative paths forward.
And you still bring the judgment, experience, relationship, and humanity required to lead the person in front of you.

******

Planning an Enneagram Experience for Your Team?

Year-end meetings, leadership retreats, team offsites, and new-year kickoffs can be a great opportunity to bring teams together around something that is both fun in the room and useful back at work.

Enneagram MBA offers standalone team workshops, team development experiences, and programs designed to bring multiple teams or departments together around a shared language for communicating, collaborating, and navigating tension more effectively.

Explore the options at EnneagramMBA.com.

And if you've found an especially useful way to combine AI and the Enneagram at work, we'd love to hear about it. Reach out at EnneagramMBA.com/contact.

Have a request for a future episode? Drop a text here!